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Lucas Leite

Creator credit recorded on the linked source page: John Lamonica · CC BY-SA 3.0

Lucas Leite

Lucas Leite is a Brazilian black belt, 2007 world champion and half-guard coach who leads Lucas Leite BJJ in La Habra, California.

Biography

Lucas Leite is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and the head instructor of Lucas Leite BJJ in La Habra, California, known for his half-guard game in gi and no-gi competition. IBJJF records supply most of the career milestones documented here, alongside interviews and academy accounts. Born in 1982, Leite began training as a child. His instructional publisher, BJJ Fanatics, places his start with Ryan Gracie at age twelve, with training there through blue belt before he moved to Léo Vieira, who awarded him his black belt. Leite took silver at lightweight in the adult purple-belt division of the 2003 Worlds. In a BJJ Pix interview republished by BJJEE in 2012, he identified that result as the reason he committed to jiu-jitsu full time. He won the purple-belt lightweight divisions at the Pan and Brazilian championships in 2004, then the brown-belt lightweight World title for Brasa in 2005. In 2007, representing Brasa, he won the adult black-belt middleweight title at the IBJJF World Championship in the gi. His move from Brazil to the United States came in 2007. By 2009 he was competing for Checkmat, winning middleweight gold at both the Pan Championship and the No-Gi Worlds. At the 2011 No-Gi Worlds, he won at heavyweight. In the interview after that event, Leite credited coach Marcel Louzado with encouraging the move up; four Checkmat teammates had entered the medium-heavyweight division. Leite continued to reach the podium in both formats. His gi World silvers came at middleweight in 2011 and heavyweight in 2013 and 2015. He also won heavyweight Pan titles in 2012 and 2015, and another heavyweight No-Gi World title in 2014. In interviews published in 2012 and 2013, Leite described half guard as an approach he could carry between gi and no-gi, with a game built around sweeping, reaching the back and finishing with a choke. That approach also became teaching material: BJJ Fanatics publishes his series The Coyote Half Guard and The Coyote Half Guard No Gi. Another instructional, Killing the Coyote, covers passing and countering half guard. His explanations of training emphasize repeated work from specific positions. In Graciemag interviews in 2012 and 2015, Leite recommended rounds that began behind a turtled opponent and continued until the attacker secured the hooks, and credited Vieira's positional training with improving his passing, mount and back control. Vieira also awarded him the third degree on his black belt in 2016. Teaching accompanied his competition career. In the 2012 BJJ Pix interview, Leite described teaching in Upland and La Habra and improving his own game by demonstrating positions repeatedly. Alongside his head-instructor role in La Habra, the Lucas Leite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in Upland lists him as an instructor. He promoted Elder Cruz to black belt after Cruz's brown-belt World title in 2022. The IBJJF's 2023 Jiu-Jitsu CON program announced a joint seminar with Leite and Vieira and identified them as leaders of Checkmat's 2021 World Champion team.

Sources for this profile

Competition results

Recorded tournament results, newest first
YearEventResultDivision
2007IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-82 kgGiVerified1st place-82 kgGiVerified

Lineage

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Trained under

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